Chapter 135 : I Don't Know Very Well, either.
I Don't Know Very Well, either.
By the time dinner was ending, the barbarians began returning to their own tents one by one.
"That was a fine meal, brother!"
"Kahaha, Barkal! You're as ravenous as ever!"
"I am a strong barbarian! Even my eating is strong!"
Wahahahahat!
As the barbarians tangled together in rowdy laughter, Serena also offered a small smile.
"Well, as expected, raw meat is a bit tough for me."
She spoke as she carefully wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Still, she seemed to eat it quite well for all that.
"Brother Dmihtan, did you not like the food?"
At Serena's question, I nodded my head.
"But you're a barbarian?"
"Just because I'm a barbarian doesn't mean we're all savage."
"That's true!"
At my words, Serena nodded with a naively innocent smile.
Fortunately, there wasn't only raw meat. There was also cooked meat I could eat.
Of course, it was cooked barely more than 'yukhoe,' but still.
"I will rest first."
"Understood, brother!"
"Kahahahat!"
When I told Barkal and the rest of the barbarians, they nodded and started laughing among themselves again.
See you tomorrow morning.
Leaving those words behind, I stepped out of the tent. I sensed someone following behind.
It was Serena who came after me.
"Are you heading off to rest?"
Peeking her face out from the tent, Serena asked.
"That's my plan."
"I'll go with you, too."
Why.
Was it that my expression so clearly showed my feelings? Serena quickly responded.
"I-I'm just curious about Brother Dmihtan's house."
"My house, you mean?"
"Yes, I just wondered how you lived in the village, brother Dmihtan."
Curious about how I lived, huh.
It was a strange feeling. How a necromancer caught between 'barbarian' tribes had lived.
It made me wonder how it would feel from someone else's perspective.
But, in the first place, I've only spent, what, a single day in 'Dmihtan's' house.
"Serena."
"Yes?"
How should I come up with an excuse?
Burned down?
No, there's no way I could hide a perfectly intact hut.
The moment Barkal went inside, any lie would immediately be found out.
"Would it be rude to visit?"
"No, just that there's not much to see."
It's fine!
Serena said so with a smile.
In the end, unable to refuse her proposal, I decided to go with her to 'Dmihtan's' house.
The edge of the village.
A place rarely visited by others.
Looking at the location, I wondered if this was to have me ostracized in the village, but the way other barbarians and Barkal acted, it didn't seem so.
"It's in a really remote area...?"
Staring at the little hut, Serena asked. Honestly, calling it a hut was generous—it was even smaller than the other barbarians' tents.
"That's right."
"Can I go in?"
At her question, I nodded and stepped inside the hut.
I wondered, could other barbarians be using it? But I didn't sense anyone.
Inside, the hut felt even smaller than it looked from outside.
Still, for a single person, it was enough.
On the floor, there was a worn animal hide.
In the corner, a tiny brazier was set.
The ashes piled in it had long grown cold, but burn marks remained vivid.
"This is where the leader and best chef of our Dungeon God adventurer party was born, huh."
Muttering as she looked at the brazier. Best chef? That's an exaggeration.
It's just that the rest of you are terrible at cooking.
Thinking so inwardly, I watched as Serena turned her gaze toward the wall.
There was an old wooden board hanging on the wall. Was that always there? Looking closely, evenly-spaced notches had been carved into it.
"This..."
Serena stared at the wooden board, now marked with scribbles.
"A calendar?"
That seemed right. The marks of counting days, a few lines scratched in.
Counting them, it looked to be at least several hundred.
"Did you... stay alone, all this time...?"
Serena's voice grew small. I didn't answer.
I couldn't answer—I didn't know the details.
As I looked around, things I hadn't noticed before gradually came into view.
Next was a small wooden box set in the corner.
"That..."
Serena's gaze turned to the same spot.
"Can I open it?"
If this was Dmihtan's house, there shouldn't be anything to hide.
"You may op...."
Wait, hold on.
Dmihtan is a necromancer.
"Wait."
Just in case, I drew closer and looked inside the box.
Fortunately, the contents inside had nothing to do with 'necromancer' business.
"Hm."
Letting out a short sigh, I stepped aside to give Serena a chance to look.
She approached carefully and examined what was inside.
Inside the box were a ragged piece of cloth, a tiny wooden doll, and a few stones.
When I saw the 'wooden doll,' I worried it might be a cursed doll, but it was thankfully too small for that.
It must have been a toy young Dmihtan played with.
This box was Dmihtan's own 'Toy Story.'
"Ah..."
Serena quietly closed the box. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
"Did you really spend all your time alone here?"
Her voice was thick with a hint of tears, and I was flustered.
I knew Dmihtan was an 'orphan,' but I never imagined Serena would approach it like this.
Still, there were corners I couldn't easily talk about.
Because I didn't truly know of 'Dmihtan's' past.
"It's not uncommon for barbarians to lose their parents in the tribe."
I replied evenly.
"In war, or on the hunt, tribe members die often."
"But..."
"What matters is survival. I survived. And I will remember."
Listening to me, Serena glanced around the hut once again.
There was another mark on the wall.
Inscribed in small handwriting.
[Even if the world abandons you,
Somehow, you survive.]
The inscription I'd written before setting out on the 'Journey of Proof'.
A phrase scrawled in self-mockery at Thrag acting like an eyesore, and dragging a barbarian along as a 'necromancer'.
"Brother Dmihtan..."
Reading that, Serena said in a trembling voice,
"You're truly strong."
Uh.
It feels like there's a bit of a misunderstanding here.
"To have grown up alone here and to have become such a great barbarian, called the tribe's sage."
"I really admire you!"
I didn't reply.
To be honest, I don't even know how 'Dmihtan Elvar' lived.
This was only the second time I'd seen this hut myself.
"You came through a similar situation, too. Didn't you grow strong as well?"
"I had a family. Friends at the orphanage, and family in the Lightbringer house. But you, brother Dmihtan..."
Serena's eyes shimmered, a little more earnest with every word.
Aren't there other barbarians in the village? Barkal, too.
"Come to think of it, Serena, you don't have anywhere to stay, right?"
"What? Oh... now that I think about it, you're right."
I quickly changed the topic.
"You'll stay here. There seems to be one spare room."
"Will that be okay?"
Of course. Why wouldn't it be?
Even though it's at the village's edge, wild animals won't show up.
If they did, they'd simply end up as dinner for the barbarians anyway.
"J-just the two of us?"
Just the two of us.
As Serena whispered those words, I turned to her.
What was she thinking?
We'd spent many nights on the road sharing sleeping quarters, hadn't we?
What was different now?
"The rooms are separated, so there's nothing to worry about."
"S-still, though..."
"If you don't like it, go to the wagon."
"Oh, then I'll take you up on the offer."
Serena answered firmly. I had no idea what had gotten into her.
Besides, it wasn't as if I could do anything even if I wanted to.
Golden hair and shining blue eyes. With skin as white as snow, Serena was stunning enough to make anyone think "beauty" on sight.
Looking at her, there was something I knew for certain.
If we fought head-on,
I'd lose.
* * *
After midnight, the village grew quiet.
I opened my eyes slowly. I was lying in bed, but couldn't sleep.
"Shhhh..."
I heard Serena breathing in the next room as she slept.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, I slipped outside.
I couldn't sleep at all.
My head was a complicated mess.
The Seven Abyssal Brands.
The plague.
I'd thought the priests were behind it, but that wasn't true.
Then, who had done that to 'Darsan,' and as the prince said, who was scheming in the village?
'I need to sort this out.'
Stepping out of the hut, the cold, dry air greeted me.
The day's heat seemed a lie; the night air was chilly.
'How could the plague have been spread?'
Let's think it through slowly.
If it's an ordinary plague:
Contact.
Air.
Water.
Food.
It spreads through these routes.
Among these, food seemed unlikely. The 'barbarians' eat among themselves, enjoying raw, unseasoned dishes.
Airborne: unlikely too. The dust surrounding the area would settle anything quickly.
Water.
'Come to think of it, is there a well in the village?'
I think there was. No matter how tough barbarians are, they can't survive without water.
The Red Wolf village is in the wasteland, after all. There has to be a well for storing water.
With that in mind, I began to search the village for a well.
Before long, I found one.
Water drunk by all tribe members. If something was put in there, the bodies of the barbarians would gradually and quietly accumulate poison.
'Wait.'
Hearing something, I ducked behind a nearby totem.
Next to the well,
someone was there.
Bathed in moonlight, the silhouette was of a woman with her long hair tied back.
A small pouch was in her hand.
'That woman is...'
Melissa.
It was Melissa, the tribe's healer, standing before the well in the middle of the night.